Growing Hops??

[BIGJIM72]

All cut & dried for me now. Again I think a few more days wouldn't have hurt but theres rain forecast here for the next few days.

 

[BarnsleyBrewer]

Nothing this year, slugs and snails chewed the stem and it wilted!!

 

[Dronfieldbrewer]

Bumper crop here in "The Dronx"....must have 2 kg of massive cones on my Bramlin cross....

I read that Bramlin produces cones of approx. 1/2 inch or so...some of the mutant cones on this Triffid are as big as my chubby thumb and have just really started to produce aroma. I am waiting until the end of next week...then directly of plant to boil for a massive Dronx ESB

 

[Bluezephyr]

The cutting I took from a hedgerow near here is sprouting nicely, I picked some from the hedge the other evening but theyre not quite there yet, smell very musty.

 

[godfrey]

guess what I will be doing today...

my first gold plants are here :party:

and some jasmin to keep SWMBO happy :whistle:

EDIT:
the plants are all installed, didn't update pics as there is not much to see
they were cut back before shipping, there is some new growth tho :party:
you can see the new shoots in the pic above.
I will leave anything that grows this year, to drain back to the rhizomes
so they get a better start next year :-)

 

[Papa G]

Just a quick ask . How far north have hops been grown.

 

[BarnsleyBrewer]

Just a quick ask . How far north have hops been grown.

Barnsley..... Lol :-)

 

[hopin mad]

How do people actually dry their hops?

Not that I have many on my first year plants.

wait until the wife goes out shopping (Saturdays are good, she will be gone some time) and put your hops in the tumble dryer, use the lowest heat setting and check after 30 mins or so.
bag into smallish food bags and put in the freezer

 

[Bluezephyr]

I Found two hop hedges today :party: just walking about while working in the country,they smell totally different to the ones near mine. Instead of being musty these ones are quite large and have a nice citrus fresh smell about them.
Filled up a carrier bag and haven't even made a dent in the hedge, it was bines n all for speed as I should have been working but I reckon there's a kilo of hops.
Don't know if they're any good but worth a punt

 

[AndyBWood]

First year fuggles harvested, dried and bagged.

 

[evanvine]

Very good ABW, almost 2 brews worth! :thumb:

 

[DethApostle]

That's 29g Target, 99g EKG and 49g Bramling X (green weight) from my year 1 plants.
The Target had been attacked by aphids so despite being by far the strongest initial grower the yield was tiny (in weight and cone size). The Bramling X started later but has the biggest cones of the three, and the EKG is the average of them on all counts really!

Now the 'harvest' is in is there anything specific to do with the vines to prepare them for next year?

Cheers
DA

 

[godfrey]

from what I have read I would leave the vines to die back before cutting them off

this will allow all the nutrient to go from the vine to the root

 

[DethApostle]

from what I have read I would leave the vines to die back before cutting them off

this will allow all the nutrient to go from the vine to the root

That's what I figured to be honest, nice to have confirmation though! Thanks!

DA

 

[evanvine]

Very poor harvest this year, only got 870g on my Goldings (192g dried).
Didn't bother harvesting my Fuggles and Bram X as there were too few to make it worth while!

 

[BIGJIM72]

Glad it wasn't just me then Evan. My Fuggles really struggled this year through high numbers of aphids.

 

[evanvine]

I read somewhere to remove the first vigorous shoots on the hop plants.
The reason given was that the subsequent shoots will have closer nodes, therefor more hops! :hmm:
I put this down to my poor harvest this year and won't be doing it again. :nono:
Anybody got any thoughts? :wha:

 

[BIGJIM72]

Mine were going great guns-but the freaky weather meant the aphids ran riot before the ladybird larvae got them under control.

 

[DethApostle]

I read somewhere to remove the first vigorous shoots on the hop plants.
The reason given was that the subsequent shoots will have closer nodes, therefor more hops! :hmm:
I put this down to my poor harvest this year and won't be doing it again. :nono:
Anybody got any thoughts? :wha:

I would have thought pinching out the growing tip more often (daily even) through the growing season would produce less leggy plants with more sideway growth. Whether this would lead to more fruit I don't know! (but it works on sweet peas!)

DA

 

[evanvine]

When the growing tips get broken, normally by birds, they do put out a couple of side shoots, but these have nothing like the vigour of the original shoot.
Thanks for the thought though DA. :thumb: